


Objects in the Rear View Mirror

by Lantean_Drift



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-27
Updated: 2011-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-25 00:31:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/269648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lantean_Drift/pseuds/Lantean_Drift
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danno reflects on ending up with Steve as a partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Objects in the Rear View Mirror

Danny knows that motorcycle cops are more likely to be killed in the line of duty. He can tell you the numbers. He knows how many of those guys get knocked off their bikes or have to stop enraged and violent drivers only to pay the price with their lives. He can talk to you about statistics, okay? You want those figures? Danny can give them to you. Of course, to Danny, each number is more than a statistic – it’s a person. Kenny O’Hare was a person; he was Danny’s friend. They worked together a few times when beat cops got called out to traffic accidents or incidents involving vehicles stashed full of drugs, or whatever. The fact is, he’d met Kenny and they’d become friends. They’d had beers after work, Danny had met Kenny’s wife; he’d eaten dinner in their dining room and played away a summer afternoon in Kenny’s backyard with their son and the family mutt. A couple of weeks after that very day, Kenny had been wiped off his bike by some asshole who’d seen the flashing lights and panicked. The crash had left Kenny brain dead, living on life support. Until his wife turned it off. After that he was a statistic, and a memory, and a couple of fading photographs in a box in Danny’s closet.

Steve could talk all he liked about how cool CHiPS was and how Danny was ruining his TV fantasies, but the truth was motorcycle cops were five times more likely to be dead or desk-bound for the rest of their career. Danny saw the grin on Steve’s face as the bikes roared past and tugged him in the other direction. One friend was more than enough, thanks.

 

Talking about statistics, Danny’s also pretty clued in about police officers and divorce rates. Long, unpredictable hours and young families don’t mix well. Nor do dangerous careers and kids. Danny learned that one the hard way. He saw it happen to the other cops around him, watched half the guys he’d graduated from the Academy with split from their wives and get divorced. Never thought it would happen to him. Even when he and Rachel were screaming at each other and she was begging him to do anything but accept his Detective badge, he didn’t think it would happen to them. He explained that it meant promotion; that he was moving up in the Force. It meant more money and a better standard of living for their little family. He thought she’d understood that. She hadn’t – at least, she hadn’t understood what it meant to him.

She never understood why he spent so much time talking about his partner. Danny can remember the day she stood in the living room and shouted at him about why it was always ‘Ray said this’ and ‘Ray said that’ and shouldn’t he just go and bloody well marry Ray if he was that amazing. Danny had long since come to terms with why that had stung far more than it should.

He still didn’t see the split coming, even when their phone rang and the caller hung up whenever Danny was the one that answered. He still laughs at himself now when he thinks of the time he noticed the new bracelet on Rachel’s wrist and genuinely thought it was nice that she’d treated herself. Even told her so to her face, how she must have laughed with good old Stanley about that one.

No, it was still a shock to the system he came home from one of the longest shifts of his life to find Rachel standing in the driveway. The car was packed, Gracie was asleep in her car seat, neatly tucked into the back of their crappy silver Sedan and Rachel was saying she was sorry but there was nothing left for her here. Apparently, she couldn’t do this anymore and she wanted a divorce.

That’s the day he remembers when he catches himself staring at Steve for too long - or worse, when he catches Steve staring back. He remembers how much it hurt to watch Rachel walk away and he knows that even cops who are married to other cops are just as likely to run their relationships into the ground. Some days Steve looks at him with that stupid goofy smile spreading over his face and hearts practically shining in his ridiculous, stupid eyes, and Danny really wants to say yes. He really wants to lean over and kiss him until he can’t breathe but then he remembers the way Rachel walked away from him and he knows that if he lost his heart like that again it would probably kill him faster than any of Hawaii’s crazy, gun-toting maniacs could.   
That; and the fact that Steve’s never had a great track record for thinking before he acts. He tends to launch himself head first off buildings and leap onto speeding boats and chase yet more gun-toting Hawaiian maniacs into the jungle on a regular basis. Danny’s heart already flips in his chest and refuses to resume normal service until he sees Steve come out of the burning building carrying their kidnapped child victim on one hip and dragging a slightly perforated perp with his other hand. That’s just an example, you understand, it’s not like it happened last week or anything. That’s not the point; the point is how the hell would he survive Steve’s recklessness if he actually let himself fall for the guy?

He remembers damn well the devastation in Amy Hanamoa’s eyes the day she turned up on his door step to tell him that someone had murdered Meka. Losing a partner like that, even an ex-partner, is a kick in the chest that a guy never really fully recovers from. Meka was burned in an ipu pit with his badge stuck in his mouth and just the thought of some sick bastard getting the drop on Steve and doing something like that to him makes Danny want to break his No-Hurling streak and puke on his shoes. He ached for Meka, he died a little inside for Amy, but for Steve? For Steve, it scares him to think what he would do.

None of that helps right now though, because Steve is looking at him like he knows Danny’s going to explode. He knows damn well that Danny has a thing or two to say about him commandeering a motorised dinghy and engaging a cove of drug runners in a gun fight. He’s absolutely wrong, of course – Danny doesn’t have one or two things to say, he has a whole fucking mess of things to say, and he’s going to say them loudly and with great force.

“Danno - ” Steve says, hands held out in a pre-emptive attempt at placation, even as he uses his foot to roll an unconscious perp onto his back so his face isn’t sinking into the surf.

“Do not ‘Danno’ me, right now, Steven. Just don’t. You went in there without back up – again. How many times do I have to say this? You will get yourself killed if you keep gung-ho-ing your way into these situations. Do you understand that? Killed – killed dead, as in you will be No More - ”

“I didn’t - ”

“Ah, ah, I am talking right now. I am expressing my displeasure at your reckless neglect of both procedure and personal safety – not to mention my safety.”

“You didn’t have to come with me,” Steve points out somewhat mulishly. “And I didn’t actually - ”

“Didn’t have to come with you? Did you just say I didn’t have to come with you? I’m your partner, if I don’t come with you then you’re on your own out there and - ”

“Danny, seriously, I didn’t go in without calling back up. Look,” he points back out to the ocean and Danny sees the HPD patrol boat coming in, recognises Chin and Kono on the bow as they get ready to hit the sand. Danny waves at them, the perp he’s sitting on groans and Danny shushes him absently.   
Steve is looking far too pleased with himself.

“You,” Danny accuses and points his finger right at the smug curve of Steve’s lip. Steve just grins at him, grabs the hand Danny has thrust towards him and tugs Danny to his feet.

“Do not think we are done with this conversation. I have so much more to say on this subject.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Steve says quietly, the words curling around the smile softening on his face.

Danny swallows his next words because they just don’t seem that important anymore, not when Steve’s still holding onto his hand. So Danny twists his fingers into Steve’s and squeezes lightly.

“So much to say,” Danny mutters, shaking his head.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Steve says and squeezes back before letting go and stepping over the still unconscious perp to meet the boat.

.xx.


End file.
